An Evening Meditation

 I’m posting this post this morning, but mostly I wrote it last evening after eight.  I was going through my YouTube offerings last night and decided I’ve had it with information for the day.  I just wanted to smoke my pipe and listen to the quiet music instead.  I’m an old guy who smokes a pipe, but I’ve always relaxed with my pipe.  It’s why I smoke one main tobacco.  My brain gets tired of thinking.  

I miss the old days when a pipe smoker can just light their pipe most anywhere.  I used to have my own office in our home where I’d just light my pipe and work.  I used to have many cellared tins and jars, but these days I sit out in the lanai and smoke what I have.  My son has tens of thousands of followers in FB and I have my few.  I did this on purpose.  Few is best for me.  

I seek a quiet life these days, but I believe more people need to smoke a pipe—not fewer.  A pipe gives one time to pause and reflect.  That time is hard to come by these days, especially for youth.  But it’s necessary for everyone even if just a twenty minute break during the day.  Over time your pipe becomes your best friend.  

It has been said if buying an estate pipe that one doesn’t know the previous owner or why it became an estate pipe.  You don’t know what thoughts the previous owner had or his or her occupation.  I have a few cracked and broken pipes and a few I hardly smoke any longer.  But they are all a part of my collection.  My wife once siggested I throw those broken pipes away.  I told her every pipe is a part of me.  

I won’t be spending a lot more on pipes and just buy enough tobacco from month to month to last about a month.  Even with pipe smoking I’ve simplified my life.  And it is what smoking a pipe does—it helps keep life simple.  I’ve tried to simplify my life and I don’t like the complexity of the world and try to escape it when I can.  A pipe is like a mini-retreat.  

Smoking a pipe is almost automatic for me.  I don’t give much thought to my pipes these days.  But really, we need time to not give much thought to anything really.  Especially before going to bed.  But I’m not old enough to just be written off.  I started smoking a pipe when it was common.  A mom and pop pipe shop was on every corner.  

I’ve tried to figure out how many tobaccos I have tried.  I’ve guessed hundreds, but might be closer to a thousand and there are thousands I’ve never tried.  And if I bought every pipe I ever wanted I’d probably own a few thousand.  Back in the day a man wore his pipe like fine jewelry.  And if one pipe was all he could afford it was probably purchased at the drug store and he smoked it until it broke and then he’d just buy another one.  Simplicity is best in all things.  

My “haunted” Gettysburg pipe this morning always gives me thought.  It has a four fingered hand carved into it.  I bought it on a whim in a an antique store in Gettysburg for about $30 back around 2010.  It’s one of my favorite pipes.  I finished this post this morning while smoking my pipe of the day.  My tobacco is Proper English by Peter Stokkebye.  My coffee is Stumptown Holler Mountain.  Thank you for your time and Peace and Love to each one of you.  

Papa Chasteen